1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printing system, a control method for the printing system, and a storage medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
Currently, in printing systems for the print on demand (POD) market, a printing machine and various post processing machines are directly connected (in-line connected) for performing folding and trimming (cutting) processing on printed sheets.
In such a printing system, when the printed sheets are folded or trimmed (cut), if a discharging unit for discharging the folded sheets and the cutting unit for receiving the folded sheets are not connected, or depending on a combination of the folding method and the trimming (cutting) method, a fold-line portion of the folded sheets may be cut off.
For this reason, an operator of the printing system is unable to select the trimming (cutting) process when the folding processing is performed on the sheets. Further, the operation via the operation panel is limited so that a specified trimming (cutting) method (e.g., fore edge trimming (cutting)) is not performed when a specified fold processing method (e.g., Z fold) is designated.
Depending on a combination of the folding method and the trimming (cutting) method, the fold line portion of the folded sheets may be cut off. A technique below is known for solving such a problem.
For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-163514 discusses a method in which two fold lines of a Z-folded sheet are set inside each edge of the folded sheet so that the folded sheet can be trimmed (cut) without the fold lines being cut off. Further, whether a portion that is to be finally trimmed (cut) is included in a sheet is determined, and the folding position is changed based on a result of the determination.
Further, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 10-186959 discusses a method in which if sheets that need folding and sheets that do not need folding are mixed, the sheets are classified into two groups that need folding and that do not need folding. Then, the sheets that need folding are printed together. Similarly, the sheets that do not need folding are printed together. In this way, the sheets that do not need folding can be selected and trimmed (cut).
However, there may be a problem in using the above-described method to the above-described conventional printing system. The printing machines for the print on demand (POD) market are capable of printing sheets of various size and paper quality or sheets that are processed by different processing methods in one print job.
In a method where operation via the operation panel is limited so that a specified trimming (cutting) method (e.g., fore edge trimming (cutting)) cannot be applied to sheets that have undergone a specified folding method (e.g., Z fold), the method is not applicable when the folded sheets are mixed with the non-folded sheets.
Further, depending on the details of the printing, only a specified folding position is allowed or the folding position is designated in the print order. In these cases, it is not always practical to automatically adjust the folding position and continue the printing at the POD site or the printing site as is discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-163514.
Further, depending on the details of the printing, there are cases where the output order is important or the output order is included in the order given by a client. In these cases, it is not always practical to classify the output that needs folding and the output that does not need folding at the POD site or the printing site as is discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 10-186959.